The picture is from the dinner mentioned in the previous post.

It’s time for a Turkish update. I’m hear in Istanbul, at Bo?aziçi University (typing on a Turkish/impossible keyboard). And what have I done so far? Well, I feel like fully recounting my varied (though not particularly thrilling) experiences in their entirety is most likely unwarented so I’ll try and stay brief. The origional flight was a disaster (much like the series of flights that spawned this blog) with a two hour delay at the gate for bags to be unloaded as the flight was overbooked followed by a sick passenger over the atlantic causing us to return to Newfoundland where, upon landing, we poped a tire. Needless to say there was no replacement and we were shipped off to a hotel till 6:30am the next morning after 4 hours of sleep at which point the plane was supposed to arrive. It did that at about 10am for a 10:50am departure.

Turkey itself (or rather Istanbul) has been increadable. It is a city seeped in history but mordernizing quickly and the dicotomy is immediately evident. So far I’ve taken my first trip to Asia, done quite a bit of shopping (and gotten ripped off equally as often) along with a variaty of exploratory probes into the city. Yesterday I got my first taste of Turkish icecream in Taksim after an amazing dinner on a back street running down a steep hill (the entire city is composed of such hills) and it was great though very strange – almost like rubber in it’s consistancy.
Today we visited Hagia Sophia, the Sultan Ahmed Mosque (the Blue Mosque) and got a personal tour of the Suleiman Mosque by it’s chief librarian along with special access to it’s libraries. All of these put me in the same mindset as Rome always does. We simply don’t go through all the trouble of building St. Peter’s or Hagia Sophias to last these days. What I would like to see is a project on a truly grand, awe inspiring and decedent scall to house our government. Such a monument would pay for itself over the centuries as an artistic and cultural becon (much as these others have) as well as inspiring not only awe, but a sense of much needed pride into a profession few motivated and intellegent individuals even consider these days – politics.

Perhaps instead however I should direct my challenge to our captins of industry, the multinationals which drive the modern world and are fueling the future. They have both the means and the incentive to display their power like that – I’m sure there are good reasons to invest in such a project (as a joint venture). On that note I’m reasonably certain I’d like to focus my studies on globalization and continue in economics so as to do so. We’re at an interesting point right now, one where globalization may lead multinationals to disassociate from any one nation and become the glue that cements peace and stability in this world for better or for worse. Of course I speak out of ignorance at the moment and so before you take my words at face value allow me a little time to get my facts straight.
Ciao